FYI

Meadow Brook Hall’s Holiday Walk runs now through Dec. 23. This year’s theme is “Treasures of Travel.” Danny Dodge’s cabin will be open for viewing. People are encouraged to bring an unwrapped toy to be donated to the Salvation Army. Tour hours are 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Mon.-Sun. Tickets are $20 for adults, $5 for children 17 and younger, free for children under two years. The hall is located at 480 South Adams Road, Rochester. Call 248-364-6200. Visit www.meadowbrookhall.org.

Travel through time at Meadow Brook Hall to see where the Dodge-Wilson family journeyed and a collection of their travel purchases at this year’s 42nd annual Holiday Walk, now through Dec. 23.

With the theme “Treasures of Travel,” visitors take a self-guided tour through the 110-room mansion -- a Tudor-revival-style mansion in Rochester built in the mid- to late 1920s. Rooms are decorated to evoke the countries the family visited.

As the tour begins, visitors walking through the main entrance encounter two Christmas trees adorned with flags and luggage labels used as ornaments to represent different countries.

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“This is where visitors are being immersed as if they are walking on a plank to get into a cruise ship and shown international treasures,” said Shannon O’Berski, Meadow Brook’s marketing and communications manager.

Each room features pieces from the vast Meadow Brook collection. Some items include a traveling truck, vintage toys and clothing the family bought while on vacation.

A team of 20-30 volunteers and professional decorators worked together to bring the feel and theme to life.

“It’s great for the visitors to get an understanding that this truly was family who lived here,” O’Berski said.

The tour allows visitors a chance to “experience the home and the grandness of it and get in the holiday spirit, but to also learn the stories of the people who lived here.”

When the family lived in the house, O’Berski said they would have celebrated Christmas morning in the family room where their tree would have been.

New this year, Danny Dodge’s Cabin will be feature a display of vintage toys from . On weekends, visitors will be offered hot chocolate and holiday cookies at the cabin.

For young girls, the Knole Cottage will be open displaying Frances Dodge’s doll collection.

Keeping with the theme of travel, while on a self-guided tour, children will be given a sheet with clues to find ornaments hidden in the boughs of the Christmas trees in each room.

In honor of Matilda Wilson, Meadow Brook partnered with the Salvation Army for the first time to collect toys for children.

Through Dec. 15, visitors can bring unwrapped toys to donate to children of Oakland County.

“It’s a great opportunity to continue what Matilda started with her relationship with the Salvation Army,” O’Berski said. “In recognition of all the things that she has done, we thought perfect partnership.”

According to Meadow Brook’s website, the mansion is the historic home of Matilda Dodge Wilson, her second husband Alfred Wilson, a lumber broker and their four children, Frances and Danny Dodge, and Richard and Barbara Wilson. It exists as an indirect product of the achievements and good fortune of her first husband, automotive pioneer John F. Dodge, co-founder of Dodge Brothers Motor Car Company who quickly prospered in the burgeoning auto industry before his tragic death in 1920, leaving Matilda one of the world’s wealthiest women. This fortune not only built one of America’s finest residences and country estates, it also supported numerous Detroit charities and organizations, and made possible the founding of Oakland University. Read the complete story at Meadow Brook Hall’s website.